Tree Lights and Stockings
by the12thcookie
Summary: Just a cute little holiday season two-shot for you all! The Flock tries to take on a regular style Christmas- but with tyrant Max dictating, how long can things stay peaceful?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride.**

**Fang's POV:**

"No, Gazzy, those lights are the ones to put by the stockings! Not by the tree!" Max shouts, exasperated. Huffing and muttering under her breath, she stormed out of the room, probably to go antagonize somebody else.

"Geez." I remarked lightly.

"I know, right?" Gazzy murmured. "What's the difference, anyway? Tree lights and stocking lights? We're going to use the same strings of lights from the same box of multi colored Christmas lights for both. If I had known she was going to go crazy, I probably would have voted to have a regular Christmas." He paused, looking thoughtful. "Regular for us, anyway."

A few days ago, since we were passing over Arizona, the Flock had a vote. Our first option was to celebrate Christmas as we always did, in somebody else's vacation home, stealing presents to give to one another. The second was to drop by the Martinez's house for Christmas, and hope we'd be welcome there.

The vote was practically unanimous; everyone except Max wanted to have a normal holiday, for once, so Max eventually gave in. Dr. Martinez was more than happy to welcome us, but she and Ella weren't staying in town for Christmas. We couldn't go with them to their family reunion, even though technically, Max was related. Dr. Martinez offered to let us use her house for Christmas, as long as we promised to keep our wings a secret and kept the house clean and preferably not blown up.

Max readily agreed, but she took the whole keeping things clean to a whole new level. The first few days were alright and actually pretty fun, but as Christmas day grew closer, Max started freaking out. If one of us so much as breathed on the dining table, she yelled. When Nudge talked too much, or Angel read someone's mind, Max flipped out. Just yesterday, she blew up over me about walking too silently.

"So much for happy holidays." I muttered, more to myself then anything, since Gazzy had already left the room. It was just me and tree, but with my luck, I expected Max to pop out and blow her top about I don't know, the fact that the picture frame was slightly off center above the fireplace.

I moved to go fix it, and as I was straightening the picture, Max walked back in.

"What?" I snapped, before she could say a word. She looked slightly taken aback and hurt, and I regretted it instantly. Even if she had been a total jerk to me for the past couple days.

"Nothing. I'm sorry." She muttered and left the room just as quickly.

Oh no oh no oh no. This was not supposed to happen, oh no.

See, my plan had been to confront Max about her attitude of late, and tell her to relax, and let the rest of us enjoy the holidays. It would not work if she was mad or upset at me, because she wouldn't truly listen to what I had to say.

"Max!" I called after her. "Max, wait."

She paused at the front of the stairs, but didn't turn around. I walked to her calmly and forced her to turn around so I could look at her eyes.

"That was uncalled for. I'm sorry." I said, but Max brushed me off.

"It was totally called for. I've been a brat to everyone, and everyone's mad at me, and I'm ruining everyone's first real Christmas in a long time. So I'll just go-" She waved her hand behind her, gesturing in the direction of her room, "-and get mad at myself in my own room, or something."  
>She turned to walk away, but I caught her elbow.<p>

"You're not ruining my holidays, or anyone else's." I say, and Max raises her eyebrow at me.

"Okay, maybe just a little." I amended. "But what's wrong? Why are you so stressed out?"

Max opened her mouth to reply but hesitated. A few seconds later, her shoulders slumped as she began to talk. "I'm being my usual paranoid self, and my usual bossy, controlling self, and probably PMSing or something."

It was my turn to raise an eyebrow at her. "That has got to be the crappiest excuse I've ever heard. What's really wrong?"

Max looked down at her shoes, refusing to meet my eyes. "That's it. Really."

I stay silent, knowing this will annoy her enough for her to tell me the truth. Sure enough, a minute later, she says, "Eraser Max is back. Except now she talks to me, and tells me the most horrible things. I'm going to go crazy, Fang!" Her head snaps up as she meets my gaze.

Suddenly, all my anger for her flies out the window, and sympathy floods in. "I hate to break it to you, but you're already pretty far around the bend." I say, trying to coax a smile out of her. The corners of her lips rise up slightly, but it's not what I want.

"Okay, jokes aside, it's not a big deal." Max opens her mouth to interrupt me but I put both of my hands on her mouth to shut her up. "Really, Max. I know what she tells you must be pretty bad if it shakes _you_ up, but she's not real. And you should have told me. Instead of just going all Monster Max on us."

I move my hands from her mouth but somehow they end up circling her waist instead. I unconsciously pull her slightly closer to me, and her arms hesitantly come up around me, too.

"I should have. But I wanted to let you enjoy your vacation." A sort of twisted smile forms on her face. "Not that that worked out anyway."

I lean in a little as I choose my next words very carefully. "There's still plenty of vacation left, Max. Why don't you make the rest of it as good as possible for the others?"

The crooked smile on her face grows. "And for you?" She asks.

"What do you mean?"

"I will patch things up with everyone else. But what about with you?" She clarifies.

I am somewhat taken aback. "You can make it up to me in other ways." My voice says huskily. Oh my freaking god. I DID NOT just say that.

Max pulls a little away from our embrace, her cheeks tinted pink.

"That wasn't me." My whisper sounds like I'm a strangled mouse.

"Nope!" Gazzy cackles, as he pops out from his hiding space behind the couch. "That was me. Good job, by the way. Way to get some." He nods approvingly at Max in my arms. It's the last straw, and Max pulls completely away from my hug.

"You're eight! How do you even know what that means?" Her expression is so confused, annoyed and disbelieving it's sort of funny.

Gazzy winks at her. "MTV. Oh, and Iggy, sometimes."

Max shakes her head, smiling. "That boy will be the death of you."

"Hey, I heard that!" Iggy's incredulous shout comes from his room, most likely.

Max throws her arms up in frustration. "Has the whole world been eavesdropping!"

Angel giggles and she and Nudge bound down the stairs. "Pretty much! I've been filling Nudge in, too."

Max shrugs. "I guess I might as well say it now, then. I'm sorry I've been such a jerk."

"You're only forgiven if you make me cookies!" Iggy yells from upstairs.

"Are you really dumb enough to want to eat Max's cookies?" I shout up the stairwell. Angel and Nudge are still giggling when Max swats me upside the head.

"I was going to feed them to you, emo boy!" Iggy says, and I glare, even though he can't see it, since I can't really think of a witty comeback.

"Cheer up, Fang! It is the holidays, after all." Max grins, and I realize that I've missed her smile. I don't say that though, since I'm still death glaring the stairs.

"Says Monster Max." I grumble, and she laughs instead of hitting me, like I expect.

"You better be careful with what you say, now, or I just might go monster on you." Max says.

"In bed." Gazzy says, and then falls to ground cackling. I sigh, shaking my head at him.

"That's only for fortune cookie sayings, dummy! You're supposed to say: that's what she said!" Iggy instructs from upstairs.

It's my turn to laugh at an abashed Gazzy.

"Yeah, okay. Make fun of the eight year old." he complains when we're still laughing at him a few minutes later. It wasn't actually that funny, but hey, I'm not going to pass up an opportunity to mess with my little brother.

Max nods sagely behind us, holding in her laughter. "Gazzy, go put the lights up." She says, her shoulders still shaking slightly.

"Are you going to freak out at me if I put the stocking lights on the tree?" He asks cautiously.

Max furrows her brow in confusion. "Is there a difference?" She asks in reply.

Gazzy slaps his own face and groans and I burst out laughing all over again. "Forget it." he says, and slumps off.

* * *

><p><strong>AN- Just a cute lil' two shot for the holidays : )**

**Review!**


	2. Chapter 2

Even after he, Angel, and Nudge leave, Max looks pretty confused. "What just happened?" She asks me.

I shake my head. "It's just something you said earlier, when you were freaking out over us."

Max nods. "I don't want to know any more."

"Okay." I say, and Max rolls her eyes. Probably at my eloquent, lengthy response.

"This is really off topic, but will you come Christmas shopping with me? I haven't had a chance to buy presents for anyone yet. We can say that we're getting ingredients for Christmas cookies."

"Sure. What about my present? You going to buy it right in front of me?"

"What present?" Max teases. "I'm making it up to you in other ways, remember?" She winks.

O-kay then. This just got really awkward. If I was a preppy girl, I'd say awkward.

"Uh." I say.

Max starts laughing. "I'm just teasing, Fang. I already know what I'm getting you, but it's not something you can get in front of everyone."

Oh, dear. Gazzy must be rubbing off on me. Add that to my hormonal, 15 year old boy mind, and you've got yourself one heck of a perverted gift guess.

"Uh, okay." It's decided. I'm going to go back to couple word responses. It's safer that way.

"Or I could just give it to you now. It's Christmas Eve, anyway. God knows why we waited this long to decorate."

"Okay." Remember my resolution?

She pulls a flash drive out of her pocket and hands it to me. Part of me is relieved, and part of me is-I dare say it- disappointed.

"Look at it later." Max orders, and then she walks away. I run up the stairs into the room Iggy and I share, desperately grabbing my laptop from underneath the piles of dirty clothes.

"Slow down, bud." Iggy says when I jump into the bed.

"Shuddup." I say, as I pound on the on button, as if that'll turn my computer on faster. What feels like years later, it finally loads and I shove the flash drive into the laptop. There's only one document saved on it, and I hesitate before clicking it.

_**Fang, sucker! Did you really think I'd give you your present before Christmas? Because I won't. And you'll have to find your present. It'll be like a scavenger hunt. Here's your clue: **_

**You've got a cool gift,  
>But you'll have to do as bidden,<br>Follow these clues,  
>Because your present is hidden.<br>The next clue to get,  
>is somewhere quite cold,<br>I'd tell more about it,  
>But enough I have told.<strong>

**-Max.**

**P.S. Would you be mad if I let you keep this flashdrive and called it your present? I actually thought about that for a while, haha! :D**

I slapped myself on the head and sighed audibly.

"What does it say?" Iggy asks.

"Wait, did you know what it was?" I reply, confused.

"Duh. Max has been running around the house hiding things all day. It's doesn't take a genius to figure it out."

"But you were in your room all day! How did you even notice?" I'm amazed at Iggy's spatial reasoning skills.

"I'm smart. Now what does the clue say?"

I read the clue out loud to Iggy and we think in silence for a minute. "The refrigerator!" I shout out. Iggy nods next to me.

"True. Go get it and come back up here."

I race down the stairs and open the refrigerator. After I yank out the bottles of orange juice, hydrogen peroxide, and sulfate, I find an index card clearly marked with: FANG in Max's messy scrawl.

_**Wow, you found clue number two!**_

_**But you still have quite a way to go.**_

_**You'll still have to look,**_

_**but you'll like this, I bet.**_

_**And find it you shall, **_

_**just go where it's wet.**_

I read it out loud as I run back up the stairs to Iggy, but I'm still not breathless when I reach my room.

"Bathroom. Duh, Fang." He drawls.

I scrunch my face up but walk towards the bathroom. Sure enough, there's another index card taped to the front of the door.

_**Look at you go!**_

_**You're on clue number three.**_

_**This time, look under the bottles**_

_**of _. At hotels, they're free. **_

Once again, I read it out loud to Iggy. "What does it mean?" I muse.

Iggy stares at me, incredulous. "Do you really not get it?"

"What? No, I don't. Do you?"

"Ha, yeah. But I'm not going to solve this thing for you."

I cross my arms and glare, but it's wasted on Iggy. I go back to staring at the clue, waiting for inspiration to strike me. Bottles of what? Water wasn't free at most hotels, and that was the only bottle I could think of.

"Maaaaax!" I heard Nudge whine in the background. "Gazzy used up my shampoo for an experiment again! And it was my favorite one, the only that smelled like cookies and Christmas and vanilla and all that stuff. You know, the one with the gingerbread man on the front. Can we-"

I tuned Nudge out, and then it hit me. Shampoo! Shampoo was free at hotels, and it came in bottles.

"That's it!" I exclaim.

"Shampoo, Einstein." Iggy says lazily from next to me.

"Yeah, I know that now! No thanks to you." I run out the door and into the bathroom, but there's nothing under the shampoo bottles.

"Ig, there's nothing here!" I shout, and I'm pretty sure I can hear panic creeping into my voice. Wow, I'm so pathetic, getting all worked up over nothing.

"Nudge's bathroom." He suggests, and the minute he says it, it seems obvious. Max, Angel and Nudge shared a bathroom, and it made more sense it would be hidden there than in mine, where I'd notice if she went in.

Under Nudge empty bottle of cookie vanilla shampoo, I find another index card. It's slightly wet, but I can still read the clue.

**This clue is the really the very last,  
>And though it's quite bizarre,<br>Watching you look through our house has been a blast,  
>But the gift really is in the house of the _.<strong>

The house of the what? The mice? The girls? The animals? There were so many possibilities, although none of them made sense. Well, the clue had all rhymed so far, so it only made sense that this one would, too.

But what rhymed with bizarre?

"Iggy, what rhymes with bizarre?"

"Rock star, space bar, cookie jar, Russian czar." He lists. "Elevator car, electric guitar, shooting star, wood tar."

"Car! House of the car! That's the garage, right?" Without waiting for an answer, I walk to the garage, and there's another note taped to the door. This surprises me. Didn't I just solve the last clue?

_**Fang, you did it! Good for you. Now, did you really think I'd give you your present before everyone else got there's? You'll have to wait, just like the rest of us. This isn't a clue, it's a direction. At 12 tonight, look in the cookie jar for your present. I hope you'll like it! –Max.**_

ASDFGHJKTGHKAMXSLLUY! Dang Max and her cryptic clues. I had been so excited, and now I had to wait- I check the clock- 4 more hours! At least I didn't have to act normal all of dinner. I was oddly jittery.

I trudge up the stairs slowly. Iggy hears me come in.

"So what was it?" He asks, the air of disinterested laziness gone.

"I have to wait till midnight." I grumble. Iggy snorts.

"You know, it was a blast watching you run through the house. I've never seen you so hyper. Props to Max for the awesome idea."

"Yeah, whatever."

"Oh, cheer up, Fang! What did you expect, anyway?"

I seriously consider his question. What did I expect as my present? Chocolate? Clothes? Food?

"I don't know." I say truthfully.

"Yeah, well suck it up and wait."

* * *

><p>Minutes pass. It feels like eternity.<p>

* * *

><p>One hour down, whoo! Three hours to go, not so whoo.<p>

* * *

><p>Gah, still two more hours! Everyone else is asleep, too. Now I can't even bother Iggy, like I've been doing.<p>

* * *

><p>One. Last. Hour. I'm going to FREAKING DIE of suspense.<p>

* * *

><p>Thirty more minutes. I'm going crazy. The whole house is so quiet, even Max must be asleep. Would she even notice if I grabbed it early? Maybe I should.<p>

* * *

><p>I'm not going to do that. What if she's up, guarding the gift? Anyway, fifteen more minutes!<p>

* * *

><p>One minute! I'm going to start walking down the stairs.<p>

I step down slowly, trying to avoid the creaky ones. If my life was a bad horror movie, this would be he part where the demon possessed child came and ate my soul. You know, because it's so dark. And quiet. And a little creepy. But not at all scary.

I make it to the kitchen and flip on the light. Phew, no ghost or demons in sight! Not that I'd see them, even if there were. I had eyes only for the cookie jar. As I finally stood in front of it, I waited for the clock on top of the oven to flash 12:00 before I opened the jar and shook it out.

A messily wrapped (if you can even call it wrapping) package fell out. Using my ninja-like reflexes, I snatched it out of the air and eagerly ripped the wrapping paper open.

It was black. And rectangular. And touch screen. With a little apple on the back.

I held my new iPod to my chest almost reverently, but I'm slightly at war with myself. One part of me is thrilled- iPods aren't cheap, and it means a lot to me that Max would spend that much money on my present. Besides, I love music! The other part of me wanted something more exciting, less mundane. But I can't give an example. I was just…confused.

And then, because my life is a bad horror movie, I hear someone else creak down the stairs, some one not as adept as I at dodging the creaky ones.

"Fang?" Max whispers. A minute later, she comes into view. Her hair is slightly messy, as if her head was mashed up against the head board of a bed. Her clothes are still the ones she wore all day.

"Hey. Thanks for the present, Max!"

"You're welcome. Do you want the rest of it now or later?"

"There's more?" I ask, confused.

"Yeah." She mumbles, stepping closer to me and enveloped me in a hug. I hug her back without thinking.

"Merry Christmas, Fang." She murmurs, her voice muffled into my chest. I smile into her hair.

"Merry Christmas, Max." I reply.

Max pulls back and this time her eyes are glistening. "I thought about what you said."

For the umpteenth time today, I'm confused. "What did I say?"

She ignores me. "Okay." She whispers, and then she kisses me.

…

She kissed me! What do I do? Kiss her back, of course. Her lips move against mine slowly and sweetly. They taste like something sweet, something natural. Like…pineapple. But not really. This is why I don't talk. I would be such an awkward conversationalist.

…

What seems like forever later, we pull apart.

"So what now?" I ask her, letting her call the shots.

Max smiles adorably up at me. "Nothing changes."

"Except for this." I say, grabbing her hand.

She doesn't pull away.

* * *

><p><strong>AN- All together now: Awwwh.**

**Review! And a very merry christmas to you all :) Happy Holidays!**


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